City’s Environmental Chief Resigns

Emily Lloyd, a veteran of city government who has been commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection since 2005, submitted her resignation on Wednesday morning, City Hall announced.

Her departure, from a position that oversees the city’s water supply and sewage treatment plants, could be one of the first of several high-level departures from the administration as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg looks to run for a third term next year.

Ms. Lloyd will become the chief operating officer for Trinity Church‘s real estate operation. The historic Episcopalian parish dates to 1697 and owns land in Lower Manhattan going back to its royal charter.

Before joining the Bloomberg administration in 2005, Ms. Lloyd had been commissioner of the Department of Sanitation from 1992 to 1994, under the Dinkins administration; executive vice president for government and community affairs and for administration at Columbia University; director of business development at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; and commissioner of traffic and parking for the city of Boston.

Mayor Bloomberg, in a statement, said that “New York City is losing an effective and passionate public servant in Emily Lloyd.”

He said Ms. Lloyd had made progress on completing the Third Water Tunnel; improved management of capital projects; and modernized collection of water bills. And he praised the quality of the city’s drinking water, which is seen as one of the best in the nation.

Ms. Lloyd said in a statement:

During my nearly four years as commissioner, we made tremendous progress in implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious environmental agenda, directly confronting the difficult issues he asked me to address when he appointed me commissioner. I am grateful to have worked for a mayor that placed environmental stewardship at the top of his agenda and grateful to the mayor for the opportunity to lead this extraordinary department that touches the lives of New Yorkers every day. I was privileged to work with such a dedicated group of men and women at the department and I thank them all their efforts at Department of Environmental Protection.

dep has done a horrible job in collecting outstanding water/sewer charges. it is not a customer friendly agency. further, dep signed off on state legislation that will allow drilling for gas and oil near the city’s reservoir system. apparently, the commish did nothing to insert provisions to protect the city’s 19 reservoirs in upstate ny.

One of her failures has been her failure to tell the Mayor Bloomberg about serious problems with 311 vis a vis DEP.

There is no practical, effective method for the public to report a problem with the water supply system when the problem occurs outside of the City of New York. e.g., If the Kensico Dam were to spring a leak or start to fail, 311 would not take the call! And since DEP’s public call-in number has been eliminated, such calls go unreported. You’re supposed to call the local water company, which may or may not care to call NYC DEP. I certainly have not been successful in getting a response by a local water company.

DEP has been an utter failure as an agency and a symbol of incompetence. Water and Sewer charges are ever increasing while many large building owners pay nothing. Instead of resigning. Ms. Lloyd should be arrested by Mr. Cuomo. All employees will agree that she was simply a horrible manager and likely corrupt. She is an example of all that is wrong with this City.

Good Riddance. Under her lack of vision and vindictive leadership, DEP has the worst morale ever and efficiency has hit an all time low. She was a political hack who gave sweetheart management consulting deals to her contributors while she did nothing for the civil servants who work at the treatment plants, some of whom haven’t had a pay raise in 13 years. Maybe Mike will take a page from Rudy’s playbook and actually appoint someone who understands infrastructure, construction, management and customer service for a change, but I doubt it.

This dynamic agency involved in complex and highly technical work that touches the lives of every New Yorker should always be headed by a person with a pragmatism, vision and the one who can reason well with cultures of engineers to electricians , mechanics to meter readers and scientists to the sewer treatment workers. While cleaning the mess of New York, this agency itself has got so dirty that it can not clean up its own mess even under the watch of federal montor for over five years. This is New York”s NASA with some highly dedicated but demoralized work force and plagued by consultants who really have started to believe that they own this agency.

This dynamic agency involved in complex and highly technical work that touches the lives of every New Yorker should always be headed by a person with a pragmatism, vision and the one who can reason well with cultures of engineers to electricians , mechanics to meter readers and scientists to the sewer treatment workers. While cleaning the mess of New York, this agency itself has got so dirty that it can not clean up its own mess even under the watch of federal monitor for over five years. This is New York”s NASA with some highly dedicated but demoralized work force and plagued by consultants who really have started to believe that they own this agency.

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